Quick Facts
- NAME: David Schwimmer
- OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Television Actor
- BIRTH DATE: November 02, 1966 (Age: 45)
- EDUCATION: Beverly Hills High School, Northwestern University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Queens, New York
- ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio
Best Known For
David Schwimmer is an actor who hit the mainstream in a big way as Ross Geller on the smash 1990s sitcom Friends.
David Schwimmer. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 01:57, Feb 10, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478
David Schwimmer [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478, February 10
" David Schwimmer." 2012. Biography.com 10 Feb 2012, 01:57 http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478
' David Schwimmer', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478 [accessed Feb 10, 2012]
" David Schwimmer," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478 (accessed Feb 10, 2012).
David Schwimmer [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 10]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478.
David Schwimmer, http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478 (last visited Feb 10, 2012).
David Schwimmer, http://www.biography.com/people/david-schwimmer-9476478 (last visited Feb 10, 2012).
Synopsis
Profile
David Schwimmer was a member of an American television elite: the single, attractive, 20-something crowd that hung out in a New York coffee bar and talked primarily about themselves during 1995. He was a member of the cast of the top-rated sitcom "Friends"--one that harvested its jokes from the lives of six generation-Xers, young and unfocused characters who spent most of their time "hanging around" together. Schwimmer, who played Ross Geller on the show, had a considerable part in its success. Described by cast members Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox as "the father figure" of the show, Schwimmer played a paleontologist (one of the few characters with a steady job) whose pregnant wife left him for a woman during the first season (1994-95).
Schwimmer was considered the runaway hit of the ensemble, and he had garnered both a commercial and a motion-picture offer by 1995. He played a goofy caller in an AT&T commercial, and he spent the summer of 1995 in New York shooting the movie The Pallbearer, which also starred Barbara Hershey and Carol Kane and was scheduled to open in the spring of 1996. Schwimmer said that he was deeply serious about his comic craft. "Friends" producers David Crane and Marta Kauffman contended that they hired Schwimmer "for his vulnerability. He's both emotional and smart." He brought these traits to his portrayal of Geller, who was arguably the most sensitive character on the show.
Born in the New York City borough of Queens on Nov. 2, 1966, Schwimmer was raised by his parents--both prominent attorneys--in Los Angeles. He said that he could have used help fitting in at Beverly Hills High School, where he was a self-proclaimed "fat, ugly geek." By the time he entered the theatre department of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1984, he was a 1.9-m, 79-kg (6-ft 2-in, 175-lb) heartthrob, and he found inspiration and success on the Chicago stage. In his junior year he mounted an off-campus production of Alice in Wonderland that eventually led to the launching of the Lookingglass Theater Company, which Schwimmer cofounded with seven other Northwestern alumni following graduation in 1988. After commuting between Chicago and Los Angeles for a time, Schwimmer decided to concentrate on achieving success in Hollywood. He landed several small parts on television shows such as "The Wonder Years," "Monty," and "NYPD Blue" before being successfully cast in "Friends." He found friendship in the cast of "Friends" as well, all of whom considered Schwimmer to be the one they would go to in a crisis because "he's real easy
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